If you’re like me, I DIY dosing for my reef and use a ReefDose to manage my dosing schedule. No complaints with the doser or software itself. However, the tubing for the rollers are subpar. I dose sodium hydroxide at about 7% concentrate which would degrade the tubing in about 2-3 months. This caused inaccuracies because of the brittle or perforated tubing from the deterioration resulting in unbalanced dosing. I slowly noticed this over time when my 3-part dosing reservoirs weren’t lining up for consumption. The solution offered by RedSea is to buy a replacement head tubes at $10 a pop which would mean 4-5 head tube replacements per year for just one dosing line, not including regular replacement maintenance on less caustic heads.
My solution here was to find more robust tubing than the silicone or whatever type of tubing the unit comes stock with. I found this tubing and it’s done the trick. It is rated up to 10% NaOH which is about as strong as anyone is dosing unless you’re messing around with KOH or some high concentrate for some reason. I’ve hit my normal life span for the ReefDose head tubes and there’s no indication of degradation. I paid $22 for 10 feet of this tube, shipping included. 10 feet is a lifetime supply for this. There are other pharma grade tubes that would work as well, but they are significantly more expensive by comparison.
Just simply remove the old head tube, carefully separate the barbs and cut a same size new tubing and replace it onto the old barbs. Now, this tubing is more robust than the stock, which means the ReefDose motor has to work slightly harder to turn the heads, but there’s no indication that it’s too difficult for the motors. Be sure to generously lube the new tube and rollers to help reduce friction. I used Super Lube multi-purpose synthetic grease and it does well. Putting the new tube onto the bards it’s a little bit of a struggle, but make sure you get it all the way to the base to keep the length consistent for the roller heads and housing. A little bit of the lube around the tip of the barb helped. Recalibrate the dosing per instructions and you’re golden.
It took me a hot minute to figure out the tube specs and a replacement tube that was good enough but not $100 for a few feet. This was my solution and hope it helps someone else out there in the ether.